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Melody Landon
"When you open yourself up to people, you show them where to put the knife in.” - Mel Landon, on why she hates explaining herself. Melody Lucina "Mel" Landon '''is a major character in the ''Life After'' novels. A recent high school graduate, Melody follows Jeff Grey and his group of survivors into Thomas Massey high school during a marching band competition at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse that kicks off the events of ''Life After: The Arising. Appearance and Character When first introduced, Jeff fixates on Melody's cosmetic competency, later taking note of her shapely yet athletic physique, the bleach fading out of her hair, her heart-shaped face, and her narrow brown eyes. Melody does little to disabuse him of an early perception that she was the ringleader of a popular high school clique; Melody is short-tempered, dismissive, derogatory, and frequently complains about matters both obvious and trivial, making her an easy target for animosity with the rest of the group. However, Melody's well-honed abilities at social adaptation serve her well in the newly apocalyptic landscape; following an early effort to seduce Jeff, who she perceives as the group's alpha, Melody is quicker to accept the group's dire circumstance than everyone else, finding ways to silently and effectively contribute to their survival. Where Jeff is severely lacking in personal skills, Melody instinctively picks up on social cues, assessing them incisively, even bluntly. While Melody ultimately overcomes her outsider status, she's still occasionally victimized for her perceived detachment, particularly when the group begins supposing that she'd abandon them on a whim and suggesting she can't be trusted. As it turns out, she's simply better at keeping her emotions in check and rarely opens up to anyone else, proving herself capable when Jeff finally earns her trust. Though she's had numerous romantic relationships, she's never successfully forged an intimate bond to any of her significant others. This realization, along with the resulting regret and disdain for her erstwhile social strata, has already deeply altered her sense of self worth prior to the events of October 9th. History Born between March 21st and April 19th in 1986 to Mary, an insurance agent, and Frank, a CFO at a metalworking company, Melody was raised in Broomall, Pennsylvania as an only child. Though generally caring, both Frank and Mary took a relatively hands-off approach to parenting, frequently leaving Melody to her own devices and regularly ignoring her academic achievements and extracurricular activities. Among other factors, this led to Melody downplaying her intellectual capabilities to conform in school, eventually seeking attention from her peers instead. Melody began playing softball in middle school, meeting her best friend Brenda Delgado on the team. By this time, Melody was regularly preparing her own breakfast and lunch, her only regular interaction with her parents hinging on rides to and from baseball practice. Melody's friendship with Brenda only served to make her more cynical and savage in how she conducted herself, helping to build several defense mechanisms that would place her near the top of the social strata and forge what would eventually become her high school persona. During her freshman year, Melody's substandard grades drew the attention of the guidance counselor, an incident that solidified how little regard her parents had for her high school performance. By this point, Melody had already begun the first of her romantic relationships, and although they frequently became serious in a physical capacity, she rarely forged a lasting intimate bond with any of her partners until she met John Alescio the summer of her sophomore year; John was far more emotionally available than anyone else Melody had ever met, occasionally to extents that would alarm her. In spite of this, Melody would often find herself commiserating with him over the superficiality of their social circle. During her junior year, she first meets Jeff Grey in an art class, judging him to be valueless both as a social asset or a target for scorn. As Melody began drawing closer to John, Brenda began to cast aspersions on their relationship, making subtle digs at John that eventually turn Melody's favor within a year. Melody breaks up with John in May of 2003, and in early June, her father dies from his hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a loss that devastates both she and her mother. In the aftermath of his passing, Melody becomes acutely aware of how detached her mother has been and how worthless her own friendships have become. Ironically, this realization leads to a succession of destructive behaviors that drive Melody closer to Brenda while further alienating her from her remaining inner circle of friends. Her downward spiral culminates in a melancholy argument when her mother tries to insinuate that her father passed away because he didn't take care of himself; seeing this as a pathetic attempt to rationalize her father's death, Melody assaults her mother with the same derision that put her at the top of the high school social strata. The resulting evisceration of her mother's resolve would scar Melody, and she would never forgive herself for what she did. Things only get worse in Melody's senior year, as a burgeoning rivalry with Brenda both strained her friendships and complicated her social position. Melody manages to graduate, but the damage done from the previous year finally blossoms when she is invited to a party that promises to repair some of her fractured relationships, but is given the wrong address. As a result, she drives around Broomall looking for something to do, only to discover the lights and activity surrounding her alma mater that lead her to Bandrome. Recent Events Life After: The Arising Taking little interest in the events of Bandrome, Melody remains in her car, hoping for a returned call. Once the bedlam erupts, Melody recognizes Jeff leading a semi-organized group away from the football field and joins them on a whim. She remains quiet as he leads them to the greenhouse, only speaking up when she fathoms the gravity of their situation, hectoring Jeff with a series of apoplectic questions. Though temporarily sated, she is deeply disturbed by the presence of the possibly infected Steve Parmacek, refusing to remain in the greenhouse with him when Jeff suggests a bit of reconnaissance on the roof. She joins Jeff and John Johnston, nearly giving away their position to the masses of people fleeing the high school before bitterly engaging with both Jeff and John. The situation doesn't improve when they return to the greenhouse, as Melody's complaints about their circumstances draw the ire of Ava Vaziri, who doesn't hesitate to provoke an argument. Though Jeff manages to calm things down, he subtly chastises Melody for her lack of patience, suggesting that a bit of courtesy will go a long way before he implores everyone to try and get a good night's rest. When they awaken the next morning, Melody is the most disturbed by Steve's transformation into a zombie, shortly thereafter watching in horror as Jake Klimavicius tries to force his way out of the greenhouse. The group gathers supplies and listens to the radio, learning that the zombies are believed to be protesters, but the town is nevertheless quarantined. Over the next few hours, Jeff attempts to mitigate a burgeoning conflict between Ava and Melody while the group establishes a rotation to watch the main road in front of the school. On the third rotation, Melody requests to join Jeff in an apparent effort to seduce him, but he rebuffs her advances, only to have her mock him when she discovers he's a virgin. The two avoid each other thereafter, but she capitulates after Jeff and Don's attempted bathroom break results in Don's death and Jeff having an asthma attack. When she sees he's recuperated, Melody hugs Jeff. Shortly thereafter, the group is miraculously stumbled upon by Jeff's best friend Spc. John Anderson. Having found them, Anderson's next goal is to lead the group to the nearest check point and reattach with the Guard once he gets some sleep. In the intervening hours, a feud between Melody and Ava explodes into a shouting match that ends with Jeff and Ava diving into an ugly fight over Julia. That evening, a throng of undead sieges TMHS, splitting the group in half as they scramble for an escape; Jeff, Julia, Melody, and John Squared go one way while Anderson, Jake, Ava, and Richard McKnight go another. A chase across the roof leads Jeff's quartet through the ceiling of the gym and into the belly of the school, and they nearly make it out together before Jeff witnesses John Squared get disemboweled. Melody and Julia follow Jeff out to his car and they circle the driveway until they spot the second half of the group. Anderson, Jake, and Rich get in the car without Ava. They drive first to the nearest major thoroughfare, finding that both lanes headed toward the nearest check point at I-476 are blocked with a line of abandoned vehicles, so they divert to the police station in the neighboring town of Broomall, which was supposed to be a rescue center but seems to have been recently abandoned under unsettling circumstances. Against Anderson's initial protests, they stop by a local sporting goods store to arm themselves and acquire a district school bus to unburden themselves from travel in Jeff's two-door sedan. Julia remains behind at the bus station with Rich and Melody, where Julia conspires to trick Jeff into thinking she's been bitten. Returning from the gun store, Jeff is deeply disturbed by Julia's joke, and Melody expresses alarm that Jeff didn't try to hit her. The group arrives at the check point shortly before dawn, finding a massacre. An errant vehicle trying to merge on the interchange is stopped by the few remaining undead, so Jeff and Anderson rescue the occupant, former nurse Karen DeMarco. The group resupplies at a local supermarket and stops by Jeff's house, where the group showers and changes clothes before beginning a trek to the Lima Mall, the last known local rescue center. The group ends up spending the night at the Delaware County Community College, where Melody and Jeff patch up their animosity before the building is attacked by the undead, revealing another small group of survivors holed up in the complex. The next day, the group continues to the mall, arriving at yet another deserted rescue center. When the mall is riddled with zombies the following day, the group hurriedly exits and decides to loot a nearby hospital for medical supplies. The mission goes well until Julia is badly cut by an errant swipe from a zombie with a scalpel wedged in its fist; having apparently committed suicide with the same instrument, the zombie's blood gets in Julia's open wound. Julia quickly resigns herself to her fate, and is executed by Rich. While Jeff wallows in his grief, the rest of the group puts down an assault by the undead. They abandon the hospital the next day and return to Newtown Square, with Jeff ultimately suggesting that the group fortify TMHS to survive the worst of the crisis while bedding down in the nearby community center to avoid working and sleeping in the same place. While scouting the community center, Jeff and Anderson find the body of a young girl who apparently committed suicide, and soon thereafter, they cross paths with Robert Proctor, a disoriented loner. While the rest of the group goes to get more supplies, Melody remains behind with Jeff and Jake. While Jake attempts to nap, Melody engages Jeff on his grief and the two ultimately talk through Jeff's bizarre connection to her sex life. A survey of TMHS the following day yields the discovery that the zombified Steve has remained untouched in the greenhouse, and not only do they find the zombie of John Squared, they also discover the resurrected corpse of Matt Hughes in the basement, believing that he may have led the siege back to them after his ill-conceived exodus. Once they've dispatched all of the remaining zombies, the group returns to the community center, where Karen cremates Julia's body in an old kiln. The following morning, Jeff is summoned to speak with Alan and Jack, both of whom are surviving in State College near Dave. The rest of the day is spent using the abandoned cars around TMHS to barricade the major egresses. When they return to the community center, an ethical and spiritual debate erupts between Rob, Rich, and Anderson. The work continues the next day, with most of the time spent improving internal fortifications before a break in the action sees Jeff pleasantly surprised at a change in Melody's demeanor. A news report later in the evening suggests that the epidemic has spread to Europe, but a more pressing concern develops when Jeff finds Rob injecting drugs. An improvised intervention goes south and Rob nearly murders Jeff with his own rifle. To overcome his resulting rage, Jeff single-handedly engages a throng of undead, brutally executing them before dissolving into tears and passing out. With Rob isolated from the rest of the group, they continue working on TMHS the next day, culminating with Jeff and Anderson going to survey the football field and finding their friend Colin Mursak holed up in the concession hut. Mursak's first and only concern is that his younger sister Elena is still at home with his mom and dad, so Jeff, Anderson, and Mursak undertake a dangerous journey to Havertown that leads to the successful rescue of Mursak's sister. An evening news report confirms what Jeff and Anderson intuited from several earlier encounters with the undead: the first wave that left Newtown Square a week prior has grown and is set to return to the area within the next few hours. The group prepares to spend one last night in the community center, but the building is besieged and the group splinters in the confusion. Melody escapes fairly easily, but when they notice that Jeff is still stuck inside, Anderson and Mursak run back inside to retrieve him. The mission is successful, and the entire group safely escapes to TMHS on the bus. The group takes various positions around the high school to observe the approaching wave of zombies, but the undead seemingly take no interest in TMHS until a young woman runs screaming out of a house adjacent to the school. Anderson runs out to intercept her while Rich tries to lure the undead away using the bus. When Jeff suggests that the risk of saving this girl might not have been worth taking, Melody savagely dresses down his hypocrisy and storms off, leaving Jeff alone to contemplate what it means to be alive in a world where death is no longer the end. Life After: The Void Two months after the events of '''''Life After: The Arising, Jeff, Anderson and Rich have settled their band of survivors into a new life at the freshly fortified high school, including a newly installed video surveillance system. While the group tensions seem to have largely abated into a realm of amicable mutual respect, their newest arrival, a psychology student discovered holding up in the otherwise abandoned Lima Mall named Althea Luangrath, largely keeps to herself. Despite the visage of tranquility, Melody has been keen to identify some of the unspoken group dynamics, particularly that Rich and Karen have drawn closer over the past few months and that Anderson has become nearly subservient to new arrival Helen Cleary, who joined them over Jeff's apparent objection. Jeff records the group's recent history in a journal, acknowledging both that his brother has been killed and that he's been dealing with his grief over the loss of Julia by sharing a bed with Melody. Having spent several weeks cooped up in TMHS, Jeff proposes that he, Mursak, and Anderson travel to their former domiciles to collect computers and personal effects while scouting the surrounding region. Rich is considerably less pleased by their intentions, instigating an altercation with Jeff that quickly turns physical. After Jeff and Anderson undertake a long awaited trek to the cemetery adjoining TMHS, Jeff prepares the weapons for their journey and discovers that Melody already knows about their travel plans through Karen, who had previously relayed Rich's apparent displeasure. Later, Melody takes a shower after Jeff and shows signs of warming to his sophomoric philosophies. Jeff, Anderson, and Mursak wake up early and hit the road, returning late in the afternoon unharmed with an impressive collection of supplies. Much later in the evening, Jeff joins Anderson, Helen, and Melody for an early dinner in the cafeteria, but an underlying tension quickly boils to the surface, leading to a vicious verbal altercation that results in Melody repeatedly slapping Jeff for first suggesting that she abandoned her parents and later suggesting that she was a slut in high school. The resulting rift terminally severs any good will the two had accumulated. The next morning, Melody interrupted a conversation between Jeff and Anderson by announcing a news broadcast. The program describes the use of a nuclear weapon in continental Europe and goes on to detail ongoing rescue efforts by the military, militias, and paramilitary groups within the United States. Anderson and Rich quickly agree that they should advertise their presence for a rescue, but Jeff's impassioned rebuttal leads to the group agreeing to a tribunal where Rich will argue to leave, Jeff will argue to stay, Anderson will serve as a mediator, and the rest of the group will cast their vote for either Jeff or Rich's initiative. Despite her recent argument with Jeff, Melody insists that she'll back his proposal, but while acknowledging the obvious attraction between the two of them, Jeff further alienates Melody by vaguely suggesting their courtship is inevitable, only because there's no one else in the group with whom he would pair. With Melody's support, Jeff's argument carries the day, after which the group splits up and goes their separate ways for the evening. The next day, a young woman with an infant is spotted in front of the school. Jeff and Anderson decide to invite Tracy and Jimmy Dantis to spend the night. Karen takes Jimmy and Jeff privately welcomes Tracy, but she ultimately commits suicide; a cursory examination of her body reveals that she'd been bitten by a zombie. Once her body is dealt with, everyone goes back to their normal duties. The following day, Althea lures Jeff into an intervention where everyone in the group is intent on extracting an admission that he's not dealing with his grief and that his belligerence is only worsening. Jeff lashes out and secludes himself in his room. The following morning is Christmas Eve, and the group is awoken by the sound of helicopters overhead, heralding a scientific expedition to the cemetery. Once Anderson recognizes one of the scouts as an acquaintance from the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, he meets the soldier outside in secret, keeping the conversation private. Shortly thereafter, he tells Jeff and Melody that their group is to remain inside to avoid interfering with the soldiers, after which the two abortively reconcile their acrimony. Later that evening, Jeff stumbles upon Melody and Jake apparently having an intimate moment; annoyed by both of them, Melody abruptly abandons the encounter, but Jeff reconnects with her in the hallway a few hours later, inviting her to be the first recipient of his Christmas gift. Melody joins him in the observatory, where he reveals that he's trained the school's telescope on Uranus, relating some of its astronomical data as a vague contextualization of the group's problems as compared to the enormity of the universe. The resulting conversation sees Jeff apologizing to Melody in earnest, and Melody seeking to exact a penance for his misdeeds. As a result, Jeff admits that he once cheated on Julia. After they part company, Helen announces a vehicle approaching from the street, after which Anderson insists that they take arms and defend themselves. The result is a brutal firefight in which several of the intruders are killed, but not before the remainder capture both Melody and Helen; the two are taken to the Delaware County Community College while the rest of the group organizes a rescue operation. At several points during their attempted rescue, Jeff is uncertain as to whether or not he sees Melody alive, but he finally confirms this fact when he reaches a classroom on the third floor of the building and finds her naked in a dark room with one of her captors. Shortly thereafter, Melody dresses, gathers Helen, and arms herself, killing several of her captors as the group fights their way out of the building. One survivor attempts to pick them off as they leave the building, vaguely suggesting that they'd never wanted a fight in the first place before Rich murders him. On the trip back to TMHS, Jeff tries to ask Melody what happened, but she refuses to answer. Once they return to the high school, Melody asks to spend the night with an equally damaged and paranoid Jeff. The following day is Christmas, and the group celebrates with a large, elegant breakfast, during which Rob is introduced as having completed his rehabilitation. The group exchanges gifts, starting with Jeff giving Melody a CD she'd asked him to retrieve, 1993's Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They play the disc as they begin opening gifts, and when Jeff discovers that Anderson gave him a framed picture of his family, he breaks down in tears. The entire group embraces him as he cries. Following the meal, the group takes stock of their supplies and Althea begins therapy sessions, a charade that turns Mel combative. During a brief incursion with the undead on the front lawn, Melody takes up residence in Jeff's room, where she again refuses to talk about what happened DCCC before asking if she can stay with Jeff for the foreseeable future, something to which Ally apparently objects. In the ensuing conversation, she insists that Jeff just call her Mel. She changes the subject to Jake's dirge project, suggesting that she's subtly embarrassed to mention her chosen song by name because her friends had previously criticized her for liking it. When Jeff indicates the fact that it matters because it means something to her, she silently smiles and leaves the room shortly thereafter. Not long after, Melody winds up in the cafeteria with Ally and Rich, where Ally attempts to impress the importance of discussing their recent traumas in a clinical setting, a subject that seems to infuriate Melody. Rich and Jeff succeed in subduing Ally's insistent rhetoric, but when Jeff mentions he'd like to go on a scouting mission to assess a growing uptick in the undead, and politely declines Melody's offer to join, she storms out, and Ally follows only minutes later. Once the sun sets, Jeff shows the rest of the group his Christmas gift while Melody watches over the kids. The two end up in bed again together, with Melody having just moved all of her clothes into Jeff's room. Jeff awakens Melody the next morning, telling her that they are again under siege by the undead. She joins the effort predominantly to clear the bodies off the lawn as Jeff and Mursak depart on their scouting mission. They return safely, and later in the evening, the group watches a news broadcast where it is stated that wounds on the extremities, such as those suffered by Julia, may not be as fatal as initially thought. Jeff briefly absconds, during which they learn of a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean. A further concern is raised when it becomes unclear whether the government will begin using nuclear weapons on American cities. Jeff clarifies the consequences of that action by showing the group The Day After, after which Jeff and Mel engage in a bitter philosophical debate in which she exposes the fallacy of Jeff's belief that his guiding ethos is to find happiness in his day to day existence, ultimately leaving him behind after they've exchanged their final barbs. However, Mel encounters Jeff while she's exercising the next day, brushing off the previous night's encounter as a healthy fight, something that deeply confuses Jeff. Despite thus, Mel ultimately ends up sleeping next to him both of the next two nights. On the third night, Jeff comes to bed and informs Mel that the group is planning a return voyage to DCCC the following day, unsubtly asking of she'd like to join. After attempting to navigate her testy demeanor, Jeff tells Mel that Helen overheard her saying she wanted to leave TMHS with their attackers on Christmas Eve. Mel offers a vague but stern rebuttal, after which she grudgingly admits to spending her nights with Jeff because she can't sleep alone anymore. The next day, Jeff leads a group of Anderson, Mel, Karen, and Jake to DCCC for a reconnoiter. While the scouting and scavenging aspect of their trip is successful, Anderson irritates Jeff and Mel with his tactical analyses. A significantly greater problem arises when it is revealed that Karen is sick; after debating what to do, they decide to stay put so as not to force her into action. While Jeff and Anderson take heed of a growing contingent of the undead entering the building, Mel and Jake engage in a lengthy conversation. The situation quickly escalates to siege proportions, leaving the group scrambling for exits before seeking a temporary respite in a supply closet. When enough time has passed, Anderson prepares the group to leave, using several Molotov cocktails as distractions. While the plan works initially, the sprinklers douse the group in freezing water, hampering their evacuation. Though they manage to escape without incident, they notice a gigantic complement of undead advancing on the newly triggered alarm bells of DCCC. Once they return safely to TMHS, Rich reams Jeff for his failure to recognize Karen's illness as Mel guides her inside, eventually returning to Jeff's bed. The following day Mel and Jeff have lunch together, where, unbidden, Jeff asks her if she's aware that their current predicament will never come to an end. Mel admits that she knew back when Julia died, quickly turning the conversation back on Jeff, asking what the two of them are doing. Jeff acknowledges that he doesn't know, suggesting that their predicament has robbed him of a routine through which he could effectively mourn and that having Mel around makes him feel better. Mel sincerely asks if that's all she is to him, and Jeff impresses the value of having someone with whom to endure the end time. This admission stirs Mel into silence, after which Jeff takes his leave. The two later reconnect as the entire group watches a celebratory broadcast in a secured Times Square, and at the stroke of midnight, Mel favors Jeff with a passionate kiss. On New Year's Day, the group indulges in another extravagant breakfast as they recount their resolutions. What would appear to be a minor siege from the undead turns serious when a few surviving runners attack, but the group maintains their composure and dispatches them. Once the corpses are deposited in the pool, Rich reveals that Karen has suggested some antiviral medications to combat her sickness. Anderson details a complex and infeasible plan to locate looters and trade supplies for the necessary drugs before Mursak reveals that he successfully acquired the medication at the Temple University Ambler health center. The group celebrates by getting drunk and goofing off, after which Jeff once again finds Mel in his bed. Following some gentle prodding, Mel subtly admits she's taken Jeff's rhetoric to heart: while she's apprehensive about the future, she feels less lonely with Jeff, but still feels that both of them are too volatile to make any serious inroads at having a relationship. The following day begins with Rich trying to coax some sort of plan regarding their forthcoming attempt to rescue Jeff's acquaintances from State College, with Rob suggesting that they call the effort Operation Prometheus. Later, Mel joins Jeff and Mursak in playing with the kids, but seems uncomfortable with how much attention she gets from Elena. Her discomfiture surfaces again the following morning, where she mentions that Elena's proclamation of love to her the prior day shook up her associations of the word, leaving her to ask if Jeff believes whether there are different types of love. When Jeff gets caught up in his answer, Mel supposes that sacrifice determines the difference, that Jeff would've sacrificed himself for Julia if he'd had that chance, and that he's still torturing himself with her loss. When Jeff can't disagree, Mel insists losing something doesn't mean that there's nothing left. Jeff and Rich spend the rest of the day planning for Operation Prometheus with Anderson, amassing supplies, plan routes, and accord a generous supply of automatic weapons and ammunition to the voyage north. After conferring with Alan the next day, it is ultimately decided that Jeff, Rich, Mel, and Althea will make the trip, leaving Anderson, Karen, Mursak, Jake, Rob, Elena, and Jimmy behind. At daybreak, Operation Prometheus officially gets underway; Jeff takes the lead with Mel in the Humvee while Rich follows behind with Althea on the bus. The drive provides Jeff and Mel an unprecedented opportunity to converse openly, with Mel finally elaborating on her family life, particularly how the sudden death of her father drastically changed her relationship with both her mother and her friends. She also finally acknowledges her abduction by the marauders from DCCC; without being specific, she asserts that she did her best to control the situation and protect the virginal Helen. The revelatory mood in the Humvee is scotched by a stark warning spray-painted on northbound side of an overpass; deeply disturbed by the implications of the message, Jeff insists that he advance in the Humvee alone and that Mel join the others in the school bus behind him. Jeff's suspicions prove prescient when they arrive at the Lehigh Tunnel, which is apparently controlled by a small-scale but highly organized gang. After a fraught negotiation with the snowsuit-clad leader results in their safe passage, the group successfully reaches the halfway point of their journey. They remain at the halfway point as long as they can before continuing on I-80 toward State College, hoping that they've merely outpaced Alan. After a considerable distance, Jeff identifies some radio chatter as his friends. After negotiating a long bridge, Jeff finally reconnects with Alan and Jack and formally meets their party; Nick Wilborn, the pale and heavyset loner who previously murdered another member of their group, Heather Chapman, who is pretty and outgoing with a subtle attraction to Alan, Lada Dragomirov, a sturdy Russian expatriate, Andy Kremens, a vaguely distrustful and soft-featured nerd, Levi Hazen, a fit and stone-faced black introvert, and Nancy Candler-Hollowell, a traumatized old-money outcast. Once everyone has been introduced, they begin loading their gear on the bus and preparing for the return journey. The trip back is immediately complicated by a buildup of the undead at the far end of the bridge; Rich's constant warnings don't dissuade Jeff from impetuously plowing through the parade of zombies until he plunges the Humvee into a ravine between the highway lanes. Jeff and Mel escape with minor injuries, struggling to rejoin the rest of the group as Alan aggressively attacks the oncoming horde from the windows of the bus. Alan's hostility gets the better of him and he's pulled from the window, dropping forty feet into the ravine. When Jeff finds Alan unconscious and severely injured, Heather rushes down from the bus to help as the undead descend upon them, and the resulting skirmish results in Heather getting bitten. Jeff, Mel, and Heather manage to drag Alan up to the highway, where Nick takes it upon himself to execute the moribund Heather. Jeff flies into a blind rage and punches Nick into submission before his friends pull him away and usher him onto the bus, loading Alan on a backboard to escape the horde. After Mel overhears Jack trying and failing to talk through his grief over Alan, everyone on the bus is privy to Rich's stern indication that this outcome was one of the risks of their journey, infuriating Jeff, who mercilessly tears Rich down, insisting that he's never been brave enough to take responsibility for anything in his life, particularly the loss of his family, and Rich instantly backs off. Depressed and drained, Jeff takes a nap. He's awoken again at the Lehigh Tunnel, where it seems a new gang has taken control. Another tense deliberation ensues, but Jeff manages to ensure their safe passage, catching sight of the snowsuit-wearing leader of the previous group being executed as they emerge from the other side of the tunnel. Althea promptly engages with Jeff, analyzing his reaction to their recent circumstances and concluding that Jeff isn't grieving, he's vengeful. Jeff dismisses her, and moments later, they realize that Alan has died from his injuries. The rest of the journey is uneventful until they get close to TMHS and start receiving distressed radio signals from Anderson. Jeff does the best he can to prepare Jack's group for the worst before they arrive at their destination, finding a massive throng of undead sieging the school. As they exit the bus, Rich drives off into the horde. The initial offensive goes quite well, resulting in a linkup with Anderson, who explains his assault strategy. The unified group continues to make progress against hundreds of attacking zombies until a series of compounding setbacks results in a faltering defensive line, compelling Jeff toward a bold series of maneuvers that drags him further and further from the rest of the group. The ensuing combat gets close and tense as Jeff tries to fight his way back, during which Mel begins furiously fighting her way through the undead with a bloodlust that leaves Anderson deeply impressed. Jeff nearly manages to get clear before his hand gets bitten; Rob, who makes it to Jeff first, yanks the katana from Jeff's belt and hacks off the affected appendage just before Mel drags him inside. She rejoins the defense efforts as Karen renders him unconscious and prepares to attend to his wound. Though Jeff's tactics resulted in a grievous injury, he managed to buy the group enough time to fortify the defenses and start driving back the undead once again. A brief lull in the siege the following day allows the group an opportunity to withdraw; though the undead continue to build up around the TMHS perimeter and walls, Anderson assesses that their numbers are insufficient to threaten a breach. With Jeff unconscious, and Karen expressing doubts as to his survival, she and Anderson ultimately decide to give Jeff's possible recovery as much leeway as possible, bolstered by Mel's ardent support. Later, when engaging Anderson in a rare conversation about Jeff's well being, Anderson informs her that Nick and Andy suggested killing Jeff is the smartest move, after which Anderson punches Nick out. Mel deeply appreciates the gesture, but supposes it might not be enough to stop him. Now suspecting that Nick might attempt to kill Jeff in secret, Anderson delegates the defense of TMHS to Mursak and Jake, choosing instead to stake out Jeff's convalescence. During this time, it is widely acknowledged that Mel has become the group's most savage combatant against the undead, her furor an apparent reaction to Jeff's injury. She is among the last to know that the group has failed to reestablish contact with Rich after he drove off into the horde. When Jeff finally emerges from the worst of his injury, Mel passionately embraces him and whispers something in his ear, departing shortly thereafter when Rob engages Jeff in conversation. Jeff ultimately passes out in the hallway, only to be revived by Mel, who helps him into a classroom on the second floor where he can observe the group's efforts against the horde. Once there, and at Mel's urging, Jeff describes why he once enjoyed writing zombie fiction, and the two find themselves more receptive than ever to each other's opinions of their situation as Jeff attempts to apologetically explain his recent behavior. Mel subtly indicates that she forgives him before rejoining the rest of the group to fight the horde.__FORCETOC__ Category:Characters